DayZ 2020 Year in Review

[Kyiara 736]

Hello Survivors,

It's been a while since we last made a proper blog post for the state of DayZ. Thus, I would like to give you a brief summary of the development of DayZ that happened this year.

DayZ in 2020

The core work for our team in 2020 was founded on four major updates to support the game and expand on its content. We are happy to see that, although this year presented us with significant challenges due to the pandemic, all updates except one could be released within our schedule. They featured new and returned weapons, the M3S truck, and features such as the cold survival, broken legs, or the rework of the fireplaces.

DayZ 2020 in content

• 5 new/returned weapons
• Returned broken legs
• Returned the M3S truck
• Massive upgrade to the cooking and cold survival
• Upgrades to Chernarus
• New base building flags for easier base persistence
• Continued modding support

While 2019 was a year of releases for Xbox, PlayStation, and our Livonia DLC, 2020 was aimed at providing new content for you, as well as stabilizing the game, and giving meaning to survival features. Basic balancing elements of DayZ like cold and hunger finally got their deserved attention, to make the game tough, but still fair and encouraging towards new players. We continue to empower modders and server owners to the best of our possibilities, to allow them to create and shape their own worlds and adventures in them. Modders have had time to get to know the tricks of DayZ Modding, and we have been seeing major additions to the Workshop, with our very own Adam Francu releasing his anticipated Namalsk mod to the public earlier this month.

DayZ 2020 in numbers

• Major Updates: 4 (1.07-1.10)
• Top peak of concurrent players on PC: 40,545 in February (highest since Feb 2014)
• Top monthly average of concurrent players on PC: 20,700 over the last 30 days (highest since Feb 2014)
• from January to November, DayZ saw 4.1 Million new users, with Xbox leading with 2.5M
• Top viewers on Twitch: 107,352 in August (all-time record)
• BattlEye bans: 24,000 and counting (in comparison to only 10,000 over the previous 4 years combined)
• 9,000+ mods created by players

DayZ 2020 Year in Review video

The Journey continues - DayZ in 2021

2021 is coming in hot, and we want to be ready. A roadmap for the new year is being finalized, and we are looking to expand our team. We are just beginning to check out the next-gen consoles' hardware, which will hopefully allow us to overcome some of the major frame-drops that console players have been fighting with since our initial releases there. With support from new additions to our team, we hope to resolve our ongoing weaknesses regarding some of the synchronization issues and physics-related problems with vehicles. We are ready to explore the depth of what DayZ can become when it fully unfolds its potential. Stay tuned for early 2021, when we will share more about our plans for the new year.

The DayZ Team wishes you Happy Holidays

Edited December 21, 2020 by Tom_48_97

[vasa.pupkin2015 1]

Хотелось бы все же скорейшего расширения карты

[0.64 Freerider 261]

This is great news! I love that you used the word "returned" and that last paragraph really hits it for me. I believe you again. I'm convinced that you have the vision and the passion. What the team has delivered this year has been solid. Bit by bit the team is fulfilling the promises and that makes me very happy, because DayZ is my favorite game ever. Thank you very much! Looking forward to whats to come for DayZ in 2021!

Edited December 18, 2020 by 0.64 Freerider

[Kathosky 102]

I am really happy for you guys, for the game and for the community and players. It is really satisfying seeing my favorite game overcoming its old problems and even improving its previous state from years ago. Really excited for what you are preparing in 2021! Thank you and keep it up!

[Gobbokirk 546]

Looking forward to next year 🙂

[drgullen 593]

18 hours ago, Kyiara said:

and we are looking to expand our team.

I'm excited to read this portion of that sentence!!

Great work this year and glad to hear we have more to look forward to, especially given the year that we've all just endured.

Happy Holidays to everyone -- can't wait to see what you guys have planned for 2021!  ☺️

[Makic94 0]

DayZ is really getting better and better with each update!

Keep up the great work guys!

Also I am hoping in future that the problem with memory leak will be fixed.

[Just Caused 423]

And yet still cars arent smooth.

[Derleth 1352]

Great year overall guys, and I am eager to see what you have planned for 2021. Thanks for not giving up and pushing on!

35 minutes ago, Just Caused said:

And yet still cars arent smooth.

"With support from new additions to our team, we hope to resolve our ongoing weaknesses regarding some of the synchronization issues and and physics-related problems with vehicles."

No need to be a party pooper today - it's on the agenta, not swept under the carpet. Good enough for me, all things considered. That line I quoted is actually very reassuring, it's the first clear statement I've seen in a long long time (ever?) about the issue.

[Booter 6]

I still love this game.
It's my favourite gaming experience of all time.
Even though life is busy and I don't get to play a huge amount, I'm always keeping my eye on development and appreciating the grind towards a better DayZ.
Thanks to you Dev team for all the hard work!
 

[thepoey 193]

5 hours ago, Derleth said:

Great year overall guys, and I am eager to see what you have planned for 2021. Thanks for not giving up and pushing on!

"With support from new additions to our team, we hope to resolve our ongoing weaknesses regarding some of the synchronization issues and and physics-related problems with vehicles."

No need to be a party pooper today - it's on the agenta, not swept under the carpet. Good enough for me, all things considered. That line I quoted is actually very reassuring, it's the first clear statement I've seen in a long long time (ever?) about the issue.

And I'd say they are pretty confident that they can get the issues solved if they are openly acknowledging it like this. Dev Team has been very skittish about promises and agendas. Adding new team members is also a great sign. I don't understand how anyone could be negative about any of this! 

[GamerWarrior2000 43]

That they are expanding the team and especially to fix vehicles is a very good sign. Hope they can make a barricading system and let infected break doors open too in 2021.

[TheSzepy 34]

5 new/returned weapons

- this is fine, but still, could be more, especially when we know that visual models are already done for years(and they are in game files), only thing left is to make anims and config

Returned broken legs

-doesn’t work properly, bigger chance for you is that you die from falling before you manage to break the leg

Returned the M3S truck

- with totally broken gearbox params, cmon, took me 10 minutes to make the truck drive properly as close as possible to IRL

Massive upgrade to the cooking and cold survival

-yes, which broke server perfomance

Upgrades to Chernarus

- because amusement parks and tractor wrecks are the most important things this game needs right now

New base building flags for easier base persistence

this is fine

Continued modding support

"this is fine" (every update some mods are broken, and not purely by modders fault)

[Makic94 0]

I think most of u need to chill a little bit, if they could fix all the things they would fix it already.

The game is great, gameplay is great.

Yes, there are bugs here and there, but be thankful for their effort in keeping this game alive and tbh this game is more than alive now.

[ZingZootZephyr 41]

I'm stoked with how the game has rounded out 2020 and I'm even more excited for what's up next on the roadmap. Great work, Bohemia! Next gen upgrades are gonna be awesome.

Edited December 19, 2020 by ZingZootZephyr

[Private Evans 1303]

BI is famous for supporting and improving its games for years and they would be fools if the would stopp it here for DayZ, since this game is not only really successful again, but even has a lot potential for more sales on the new consoles. Next gen consoles means next gen quality games, so BI has to improve this game if they want to launch it on the next generation PS and XBox.

As much as this game has improved over the last two years and as much fun it is even now to play...this game is far away from being next gen standart. The most pressing issues, they talked about it in their op, are server performance/synchronization and proper physics. But there are also for example a lot of horrible outdated low rez textures left over, as well as a lot of old low detailed Arma 2 modells. Not to speak about the completely outdated lighting system, which I have to admit still can look amazing out in the open world but looks absolutely horrible inside of  buildings compared to modern tech and games. 

We also should keep in mind that most of BI devs ( inluding the majority of the Arma team and for sure some of the former DayZ devs) are working on the enfusion engine right now. The engine change two years ago , only brought us a first and very basic version of BI's future engine, far away from being finished. 

With Arma 4 most likely not being around the next corner and looking at DayZ's current success and plans for the next gen consoles I really think that DayZ players will benefit big time from this situation and new tech being worked on for the enfusion engine. With maybe being released on 5 plattforms DayZ seems to be at least for now a temporary flagship for BI.

Like it or not it is all about consoles again but as long as we benefit from new tech and improvments to the game it is all good xD

[Derleth 1352]

3 hours ago, Private Evans said:

Not to speak about the completely outdated lighting system, which I have to admit still can look amazing out in the open world but looks absolutely horrible inside of  buildings compared to modern tech and games. 

This is very true, and as far as I understand a limitation that comes with DayZ's hybrid RV/Enfusion engine. To be fair, outdoor lighting is mostly great, except for the infuriating issue that buildings and objects that are hidden from rendering because of LOS will also allow light from indoor fireplaces to become visible. This causes some gameplay issues where you think you've hidden your camp but people can see it from miles away because the structure that should hide the fire is not rendering...

As for the indoor lighting, DayZ's engine does not support any form of global illumination. Indoor environments have the same ambient light as outside, that's why enclosed spaces are bright although there shouldn't be any light sources. My greatest hope for future Enfusion developments is that this can be fixed to allow proper indoor lighting, where shutting a door to a windowless room will actually leave it in darkness - so situations like the one in a certain infamous cinematic trailer can actually happen in-game...

For those who haven't seen it: 

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by Derleth

[amadieus 313]

9 hours ago, Private Evans said:

As much as this game has improved over the last two years and as much fun it is even now to play...this game is far away from being next gen standart. The most pressing issues, they talked about it in their op, are server performance/synchronization and proper physics. But there are also for example a lot of horrible outdated low rez textures left over, as well as a lot of old low detailed Arma 2 modells. Not to speak about the completely outdated lighting system, which I have to admit still can look amazing out in the open world but looks absolutely horrible inside of  buildings compared to modern tech and games. 

Agree, but I'm very happy that the devs put work in updating textures of a various items! I hope they continue doing this in 2021 for things such as the furniture in buildings and some outdated industrial buildings.

[amadieus 313]

6 hours ago, Derleth said:

As for the indoor lighting, DayZ's engine does not support any form of global illumination. Indoor environments have the same ambient light as outside, that's why enclosed spaces are bright although there shouldn't be any light sources. My greatest hope for future Enfusion developments is that this can be fixed to allow proper indoor lighting, where shutting a door to a windowless room will actually leave it in darkness - so situations like the one in a certain infamous cinematic trailer can actually happen in-game...

I'm pretty sure that the Enfusion Engine will support it, any modern engine does. Point is that the Chernarus map is still on the RV Engine, and the devs will never undertake all the work of converting it to Enfusion. 

What is interesting though, are the underground areas/tunnels of Namalsk. When you enter those the game becomes darker immediately.  Sure it is not the best option, as when you step over a invisible border the game just turns darker. Still I think this is worthwhile exploring for buildings in Chernarus and Livonia. Even if the difference is only subtle. I think a subtle darker interior already adds massively to the ambiance and looks. It even masks the outdated furniture textures more (still should be replaced by higher res though).

[Private Evans 1303]

Yeah and BI having plans to release DayZ on the new consoles will hopefully make them improve the game a lot more than maybe planned originally.

[Private Evans 1303]

Hmmm on one side they would have to redo all the interiors for working with a next gen lighting system which of course is a serious amount of work but on the other side people will expect some better graphical quality when buying games for their new consoles I am not a console player but if I would by a console in 2020/2021 I would be pissed if my games would still look like being from 10 years ago.

Also this would be maybe a good test for new tech coming with the Enfusion engine...one can dream xD

[thepoey 193]

4 hours ago, Private Evans said:

Hmmm on one side they would have to redo all the interiors for working with a next gen lighting system which of course is a serious amount of work but on the other side people will expect some better graphical quality when buying games for their new consoles I am not a console player but if I would by a console in 2020/2021 I would be pissed if my games would still look like being from 10 years ago.

Also this would be maybe a good test for new tech coming with the Enfusion engine...one can dream xD

Given how many times people have repurchased Skyrim, I don’t think graphical quality on older games is too much of an issue for a lot of gamers. 
 

DayZ definitely uses a lot of older assets that they’ve been trying to phase out of the game, but I think performance tweaks are much more of a priority than a fresh coat of paint. 

[0.64 Freerider 261]

@Kyiara Thank you for the post! Great job! Do you have any insight that you could maybe share with us, on the thing that @Derleth mentioned?

Quote

"To be fair, outdoor lighting is mostly great, except for the infuriating issue that buildings and objects that are hidden from rendering because of LOS will also allow light from indoor fireplaces to become visible. This causes some gameplay issues where you think you've hidden your camp but people can see it from miles away because the structure that should hide the fire is not rendering...

As for the indoor lighting, DayZ's engine does not support any form of global illumination. Indoor environments have the same ambient light as outside, that's why enclosed spaces are bright although there shouldn't be any light sources. My greatest hope for future Enfusion developments is that this can be fixed to allow proper indoor lighting, where shutting a door to a windowless room will actually leave it in darkness - so situations like the one in a certain infamous cinematic trailer can actually happen in-game"

 

[Just Caused 423]

On 12/18/2020 at 8:47 PM, Derleth said:

Great year overall guys, and I am eager to see what you have planned for 2021. Thanks for not giving up and pushing on!

"With support from new additions to our team, we hope to resolve our ongoing weaknesses regarding some of the synchronization issues and and physics-related problems with vehicles."

No need to be a party pooper today - it's on the agenta, not swept under the carpet. Good enough for me, all things considered. That line I quoted is actually very reassuring, it's the first clear statement I've seen in a long long time (ever?) about the issue.

Fair enough.

[Rogue v7 0]

This is great to hear, this game is slowly but surely getting better and I look forward to what’s coming in the new year. Fingers crossed for optimisation for next gen console and maybe a return of my favourite gun the Steyr AUG 😉🤞🏻